13 Places to Spend Maple Syrup Weekend

In March, local producers open their sugar bush and sugar shacks to the community to celebrate the innovative process of turning sap into syrup during Maple Syrup Weekend. The best way to fully appreciate maple syrup is with a full stack of pancakes dripping with liquid gold!

Admission fees for programs and breakfast are separate. Unlimited pancakes & sausage served with maple syrup, milk, juice, coffee, tea & cocoa from 9 am-1 pm. Take a self-guided walk around the nature center’s sugar bush along the Maple History Trail, with dozens of other activities in the historic village.

Fresh maple syrup samples in the tasting room, tours of the sugar house and farm, plus pancakes in the barn 10am to 4pm. Group hikes in the sugar bush start every hour, including stops at the shiitake mushroom log yard, honeybee apiary, and chicken coop.

All-you-can-eat pancake breakfasts are served next door at the Log Cabin Restaurant. Enjoy horse-drawn and tractor wagon rides, a tour of the sap house. birds eye view of the sugar bush, with free samples of syrup and other maple products.

Open only during maple syrup season, it’s never too early to start planning a trip to Cartwright’s Maple Tree Inn! After a beautiful 90 minute drive south to Angelica, you will be enjoying the most celebrated all-you-can-eat buckwheat pancakes, topped with maple syrup drawn from 8,000 of the family’s trees.

Because they are only open February 13 – April 14, 2018, Cartwright’s draws thousands of people from hundreds of miles around. Weekends get pretty busy, especially during Maple Syrup Weekend, and parking in the lot and along the road gets a little crazy, though it doesn’t usually take more than a 1/2 hour to get in. And it may be cold lining up outside, but it’s toasty warm (sometimes hot!) inside where they cook the pancakes on a very large griddle which can handle 700 pancakes an hour, so service is quick.

Hopefully you have to opportunity to request a day off from work (any day but Monday, or Easter Sunday) and take a leisurely day trip during the week when it may not be as busy. It’s cash only so hit the ATM on the way (there is also one on site). Be sure to check their website for the hours once the season begins.

On the way home, take a drive through Letchworth State Park. It’s free off-season and the iced-over falls are beautiful to see. If it’s been cold enough you’ll likely see the ice volcano at the Glen Iris Inn.

Like Cartwright’s, they are open for breakfast during the season only, roughly March 1-April 15 each year, except Mondays and Easter Sunday, but also open Sundays in January and February. No need to wait for Maple Syrup Weekend! They share a similar story with Cartwright’s with multi-generational sugarmakers, and all-you-can-eat buttermilk pancakes drawing crowds from across the state.

Did you know that Maple Syrup is entirely a North American product?

New York, Vermont, and Ontario, Canada are the prime commercial locations able to harvest maple tree sap to produce syrup, along with a few other locations around the Great Lakes and New England. Maple Syrup Weekend is sponsored by the New York State Maple Producers Association (NYSMPA).